Clear communication critical in current crisis

IT is a fantastic understatement to say that Thursday was not a good day for the Duterte administration in terms of public reaction to emerging news items. The lesson for messengers and audience alike in the ferocious storm of criticism directed at the government and its efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic is that clear, accurate communication and reporting are more important than ever.

To be fair to public sentiment, there were a couple of short-lived controversies on Thursday that deserved the backlash they provoked. One that did not, however, was the misunderstood issue of Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go’s handling of donations to medical frontliners.